Digitizing for Specialty Fabrics – Part 2

In the final part of this series, our expert guides you through fast and efficient techniques to use when digitizing and sewing on woven fabrics such as tackle twill and stretchy materials like Lycra spandex.
July 1, 2009

By Pat Williams, Contributing Writer

Part 1 of Digitizing for Specialty Fabrics (Impressions, May 2009) was about using an abundance of underlay to control the loops and piles of napped fabrics like terrycloth. If you read that article, I’m sure you would never have thought I would talk about specialty fabrics that require no underlay. But that’s the case with one specialty fabric.

Tackle twill is heavy polyester twill, usually with an adhesive backing, that is used for the bold, rugged lettering on athletic team garments. Numbers up to 12 inches tall made of tackle twill are standard for college and professional sports uniforms.

Pre-cut tackle twill numbers can be purchased from various distributors, or you can buy tackle twill by the yard if you have a digital cutter in house. The digitizing of the design file to sew down the numbers is simply an appliqué design.

First, digitize a running stitch outline exactly in the shape of your number. This is the placement line. You then place a stop in the design, or program a pause into your machine so that it stops, enabling you to place the tackle twill on the shirt. In some programs you can place a frame out, so that the hoop moves toward you — clearing the position of the appliqué to make it easier for you to properly position the letter or number.

If you are using pressure-sensitive tackle twill, it is generally sufficient to just press it onto the fabric with your finger to get it to adhere to the garment. If your tackle twill is not pressure-sensitive, you may need to use an appliqué iron to adhere the number to the garment.

Next, simply use a satin or zigzag stitch to sew the number to the garment. The satin or zigzag choice is made by determining the quality and cost of the final product. The satin stitch with a density of about 4 gives a high-quality look. As it is sewing both on and off the tackle twill, use an edge walk underlay to keep the outside edges even.

A zigzag stitch used as a final finish to hold the appliqué in place is more cost efficient. The density of the zigzag stitch could be anywhere from 8 to 20. Tackle twill will not fray — even after many washings — so if cost is of primary importance, consider this option. In either case, you should ensure that the satin or zigzag stitch is of sufficient width to cover the thicker edge of the tackle twill. Use stitch widths of 4mm or more to ensure all edges of the tackle twill are securely fastened to the garment.


Figure 1

When sewing graphics on tackle twill (Figure 1), forget everything you ever knew about distortion of embroidery designs. This fabric just doesn’t move or push while you are embroidering it. Don’t use any underlay. In fact, underlay will show through the top stitches. Also, don’t overlap fills where they meet. Just digitize them right up next to each other. Finally, don’t distort lettering. Digitizing for tackle twill is the one instance where you can digitize exactly to the lines of the artwork and every stitch will fall in the right place.

Leather & Vinyl
Leather and vinyl also require little, if any, underlay. The danger with these fabrics is that if you put too many stitches in the design, the leather and vinyl will become perforated along the edges and simply fall right out of the garment. To prevent this from happening, use about 20% less density than normal when digitizing for these materials. Use just enough running stitches to move from one area of the design to another, rather than underlay each section of the embroidery. Make these running stitches longer than usual to limit the number of times the fabric is perforated.

Lots of needle penetrations placed close together along the edges will perforate the garment. The danger that the design will separate from the fabric is very real because the holes made by the needle just don’t close up after the needle exits the fabric. To minimize this problem, use the smallest needle possible in order to leave smaller holes. On satin borders and letters, use a slight jagged edge on the columns so that there is a slight variation in the line of holes made in the fabric.

A word of caution: Needles designated as “leather needles” have a large triangular tip. They are for sewing on heavy leather, such as belts and horse tack, not on most leather jackets and upholstery. To embroider on the soft leather used in garments, use a size 10 sharp needle so that perforations in the fabric are as small as possible.

Leather also stretches when it is sewn. Customers often ask for large jacketback designs on leather. When presented with this type of job, you might suggest sewing the design on twill or some other firm fabric, and then apply the design to the garment as a patch or appliqué.

Heirloom Garments
Heirloom garments are christening gowns, wedding dresses and hankies intended to be passed down through the generations of a family. Customers often bring in these delicate items to have a name and date added to mark a specific event. The fabrics in these items are often delicate — batiste, satin, organza or lawn.

Use finer threads and needles when designs are being digitized or set up for embroidery on these items. Ideal threads would be 50-weight cotton and 60-weight rayon.


Figure 2

Figure 2 was set-up at a density of 3.1 and sewn with 60-weight rayon thread using a size 9 needle. The higher density setting is required by the finer thread.

Because these fabrics often are transparent, normal backing may show through. Consider using a topping such as Solvy as the backing. It is easier to remove from the garment than a tearaway backing and will leave a cleaner look to the embroidery.

Take special care when hooping these garments. Placing a piece of tissue paper on the garment before hooping and then tearing away the paper from the embroidery area will prevent dirt or oils from being transferred to the fabric. It also is a good idea to wear white cotton gloves while handling these irreplaceable items.

Lycra Spandex
Digitizing for Lycra spandex is basically a matter of knowing what not to digitize. We’re not talking about fabrics that have a little spandex added for wearer ease — 3% to 5%. The challenging garments are bicycle jerseys, swimsuits and leotards that are made of 100% spandex. These garments are actually made smaller than the intended wearer’s size so they will stretch and conform to the wearer’s body.

If you choose a design that has fill stitches, you will prevent the garment from stretching behind those fill stitches. The garment will not fit properly at the area where the embroidery is located, and will create such a strain on the fabric that it will rip. So it is best to choose lettering or singular satin stitch designs — such as an anchor to go on the front of a swimsuit — to minimize the restriction of the garments stretch properties.

Use ball-point needles on Lycra spandex to minimize cutting the elastic fibers in the garment. A ball-point needle is designed to move fibers aside rather than pierce individual strands.

Also, use tearaway backings on stretch fabrics. Any other type of backing will inhibit the stretch properties of the garment.

Spandex fabrics need to be stretched when they are hooped in order for the embroidery to look good on the garment. It’s often difficult for the embroiderer to know how much to stretch the garment.


Figure 3

Figure 3 shows a design embroidered without the fabric being stretched in the hoop. The letters are very distorted and the fabric appears quite puckered.


Figure 4

Figure 4 shows the same design sewn when the fabric was stretched too much before hooping. When the garment was removed from the hoop, the fabric puckered up around each letter in the design.


Figure 5

Figure 5 is the same embroidery with just some stretch applied to the fabric during hooping. So, how much should you stretch? Hold about 10 inches of the fabric against a ruler and then pull it horizontally across the ruler to tell how much stretch a fabric has.

If 10 inches of the material stretches to 14 inches, that means this fabric has 40% stretch, but you shouldn’t hoop it at that amount. Figure 5 was embroidered for the 4-inch-wide design with the fabric being stretched about 10% when hooped. That means the 4 inches of material was Figure 5 stretched to approximately 41/2 inches. The garment will still look good on the wearer when stretched somewhere between 10% and 40%.

This isn’t an exact science and may differ from fabric to fabric, but you can use this as an indicator of how much to stretch your Lycra spandex fabrics before sewing.

It is impossible to cover every type of specialty fabric you might want to use, but I hope these guidelines will assist you in examining the properties of some popular specialty fabrics. Working with the individual fabric’s unique properties will help you determine when to lighten densities, choose specialty threads and make proper backing choices to achieve successful designs.

Pat Williams of Image Embroidery in Sierra Vista, Ariz., is an award-winning digitizer with experience in accounting and small business management. For more information or to comment on this article, e-mail Pat at Pwilliams22@cox.net or visit imageemb.com.

Tips for Training Embroidery Operators
Does your shop have a training program? Even if you are a one-person shop, there will likely come a day when you will need to train a helper, salesperson or machine operator. Start keeping notes now about what your employees need to know and how you want to teach them.
September 14, 2009

How Fabric Color Impacts Contract Digitizing
A common frustration for contract digitizers is when the sew-out of their file tests perfectly but turns out horrible on the customer's machine. The file is sent back and the digitizers are then trying to fix an already perfectly digitized file and can only guess where the problem may lie.
September 14, 2009

Off the Cuff: Selling to Religious Organizations: Part 1 of 2
In our industry we decorate a massive assortment of items by a broad variety of technologies. Then we distribute what we produce to virtually every economic sector in every nook and cranny of society.
September 14, 2009

Diversifying Your Customer Base  
Learn to evaluate and adjust your mix of clientele for optimum profitability and stability.
While the economic lows that many American markets have been experiencing for the past year are certainly painful, they’re also nothing new. Historically, the tide of business success continually ebbs and flows, with one market experiencing a rush of good fortune while another watches its revenue all but dry up. This cyclical nature of business is precisely why decorators must have a diverse customer base that allows them to weather slowdowns — or even meltdowns — in parts of the economy.
September 02, 2009

Jacket Sales Stay Warm 
Styles and price points may change, but thankfully, jacket sales won’t cool off anytime soon.
When the going gets tough, the tough keep going — and they keep wearing jackets. That’s the positive message from numerous industry suppliers, who say that even as the economy continues to sag, sales for jackets remain robust — albeit often at lower price points and in different styles.
September 01, 2009